He was the first one to break the stunned silence.“Thisis what you’ve been doing with the grant money from Congress?”
Atria blinked. “…Yes? Have you not been reading the reports we’ve sent to the clean energy commission?”
Theodore grimaced. “I usually skim the first page — but to be fair to me, those reports are sometimes over two hundred pages long.”
“It doesn’t help that we haven’t exactly gotten the most support from the commission, either,” she explained, only atouchbitter about how her life’s work had been relegated to a handful of paragraphs in the last pages of those dense packets.
She understood their skepticism. People had been trying to channel the magic in the atmosphere for thousands of years. It surprised neither Atria nor Ruby that they got the scraps — both in funding and attention. In fact, the only reason they’d been able to complete their project at all was because Atria was extremely well-versed in stretching limited funds, and when even those proved to be too thin, Ruby stepped in with her personal wealth to fill the gaps.
With the reminder of just how they’d struggled over the years, Atria’s stomach clenched. Her delight in the rich food vanished.
Delicately setting her fork down on the edge of her plate, she added, “But it doesn’t matter whether the commission supported us or not. We have a working prototype and two years’ worth of proof. Once we present our breakthrough at the NPDC, they’ll see that we were right.”
Theodore raised his eyebrows. “The…”
“The NPDC,” Margot said, patting his arm. “TheNatural Phenomena and Development Conferenceput on by the Academy of Sciences in United Washington every three years.” Her eyes, the same color as new pennies, shone with excitement when she turned her gaze back to Atria. “Oh, this is going to beamazing!I can’t wait to see your faces splashed all over the news feeds in a few weeks. And the good you’re going to do— Atria, it’sunbelievable.”
Her throat tightened painfully. “Yes, that’s the whole point. We just want to do some good.”
“Are you heading to the New Zone tonight?”
Atria shook her head. “No, I’m flying into the Orclind first so I can meet with—” She stopped herself just in time, knowing that Margot wouldn’t approve of her visit on a personal level. “…a member of my team. Ruby is doing a consulting gig in Las Vegas right now, so we’re going to meet up in the New Zone in two weeks.”
“Are you going by yourself?”
She glanced away from Margot’s huge grin to find the sovereign eyeing her speculatively. “Yes. Why?”
“The New Zone is dangerous,” he answered, lips turning down. “A witch on her own could get into serious trouble there, especially one with potentially world-changing research in her luggage.” Theodore reached for his glass of wine and, casually as you please, went on, “I’ll assign you a guard. They’ll escort you from the EVP to the NP-whatever.”
Atria balked. “Ah, that’s very kind of you, but—”
“You can’t just assign a guard to her, baby,” Margot interrupted. “Atria isn’t a citizen of the EVP. She lives in the Collective.”
“Then call your grandmother and havehersend a guard,” Theodore replied, putting a hissing sort of emphasis on the wordgrandmother.
Margot’s eyebrows snapped together, and it didn’t take a genius to understand why. Ruby wasn’t one for gossip, but seeing as they were all friends, she’d confided in Atria that things between Margot and the Goode Coven’s leadership — mainly her grandmother — hadn’t been the same since her wedding.
As far as she knew, Margot hadn’t visited the Collective since and, perhaps more tellingly, her matriarch and grandmother hadn’t been invited to the EVP even in an official capacity during that time, either.
Things were cold between the scion of the Goode Coven and her grandmother — and not just because Sophie was a weather witch with a talent for ice.
Hoping to clear some of the tension in the air, she said, “I don’t need a guard.”
Atria wasn’t in the habit of arguing with the leader of a territory, but shewaswell-versed in holding her own against strong personalities. She’d spent the better part of a decade being best friends with Ruby Goode, after all.
When the sovereign gave her an unmoved stare, she continued, “Listen, our research is classified. Very few people know or care about it, so it’s not like someone is going to hunt me down for my notes.” She waved a hand dismissively and tried to ignore the way Theodore’s gaze dropped to her tattoos. “And as far as the New Zone goes… It’s aconference.I’ll be going from presentation to hotel room and back again. It’s not like I’ll be roaming the streets at night looking for a vampire hookup.”
Margot smothered a laugh behind her hand. “Thatdoessound like fun, though. And I hear vampire venom is a clinically proven stress reliever.”
Atria cracked a small smile. “I coulduse some stress relief, but maybeaftermy presentation.”
ChapterThree
Kaz didn’t considerhimself a coward. He was a survivalist.
He didn’t have Theodore’s honorable backbone, nor Sam’s gentleness. Unlike his brothers, he fought dirty, wasn’t afraid to use blackmail when necessary, and knew when to cut his losses and run.
There was no shame in self-preservation. That was the first thing he learned when he started wandering the streets as a kid. If you picked a fight with someone and it turned out they were stronger than you, what was the benefit of staying? All you got was your ass beat.
